Many experimental and laboratories settings require careful temperature and evaporation control of reaction mixtures, reagents, analyte, in order to carry out the appropriate experimentation and/or reaction to carry out the required tests, perform reaction, or produce a reaction yield.
Such tight temperature and evaporation control is true for most if not all laboratory setting but is of particular importance in modern day biotechnology and/or biochemical laboratory settings where careful control of the temperature is required at almost all stages of experimentation.
Some laboratory applications, for example PCR, protein crystallography, in-vitro biochemical assays, require varying types of environments for an analyte. For example, some applications and/or analyte demand rapid and/or instantaneous temperature controlled settings; while other analyte and/or applications require gradual temperature controllable settings, and others require temperature cycling between hot and cold environments.
Other experimental protocols may require an analyte be exposed to particular temperature within a given time frame in order to produce a sought after effect. Therefore in some instances following mixing of reagents an experimental reaction must be performed within an incubator or on ice or the like temperature controlled environment.
Many such reaction and experiments readily use a pipette to distribute and dispense reagents within a reaction plate. The reaction plate most readily used in laboratory setting and in particular biochemical settings is a multi-well plate, for example a 96-well plate arranged in an 8 by 12 matrix. Each such multi-well plate provides a plurality of wells for receiving fluids and in which the wells are regularly arranged in two-dimensional arrays made up of columns and rows intersecting each other at right angles (matrix). Such plates are generally intended for single-use only made of plastic.
Various instruments have been developed to attempt to control the temperature of such multi-well reaction plates. Automation and use of robots have been introduced to attempt to gain such temperature control of a reaction plate. Other low tech solutions utilized in labs include placing plate on crushed ice, water baths or incubators.
Similar solutions involve placing the reaction plate in contact with a metal block that is heated and/or cooled with a closed-loop liquid heating/cooling system by circulates a heat transfer fluid through channels machined into the block.
Still further such solutions have been adapted to provide different thermal environments for different reaction vessels by attempting to control temperature of individual reaction wells or areas within the reaction plate.